Microbes of Power (Wallace of the Secret Service Series) (31 page)

‘Oh!’ she cried. ‘Would you desert me, my wonderful friends, before I have congratulated you on your so great achievement? Mr Tempest told me all that which had happened, and I am so happy. It is now all over?’

‘Yes, Thalia, it is all over,’ replied Sir Leonard. ‘And a great deal of the success is due to you. I will take care that the Greek government is made aware of what it owes to its most gallant daughter.’

The colour rose slowly to her cheeks, her glorious eyes sparkled gladly.

‘Again you are too much good to me,’ she murmured. ‘It is little that I have done. Those others, the poor secretaries, died, while I was lucky to have so much protection – without it I would have also died.’

‘They were in the same service as you?’ asked Shannon.

‘Not exactly,’ she replied. ‘They were bribed to find out what they could about their employers. They did not know me, but I knew about them. Part of my duty was to watch them to see that they did not do the – oh, what is it – the word I want?’

‘The dirty,’ hazarded Shannon.

‘No, no – ah! I have got it: I was to watch that they did not do the double-cross.’ Shannon smiled significantly at Hill, who flushed painfully and lowered his eyes. Thalia looked from one to the other. ‘What is it, my Raymond?’ she asked anxiously. ‘Why do you look so?’

‘For a little while I doubted, Thalia,’ he confessed. ‘Words spoken by the secretary, when he was dying, shook my faith – a little. Shannon quickly showed me what a fool and a rotter I was. I – I’m terribly sorry, dear.’

She put her fingers gently on his lips.

‘There is nothing for which to be sorry,’ she declared softly. ‘It is a great wonder to me any of you ever found the faith in me.’

‘It would be a sign that we were lunatics if we had not,’ retorted Sir Leonard. ‘And now I want to beg a favour.’

‘Oh!’ she cried, ‘I will gladly grant it, if I can. What is it?’

‘I want to give you away at your wedding. May I?’

‘And I’ll jolly well insist on being best man,’ vowed Shannon.

She gave the bandaged hand to Wallace, the other to Shannon; smiled gloriously, happily at them, though tears were in her eyes.

‘You dear men, I shall love it. When that day comes, I shall feel that I am cleansed from all taint of the name Ictinos, for it will belong to me no more.’

‘No,’ breathed her lover, ‘but there can be no taint on a name that you have glorified.’

He and she forgot their companions, as he took her into his arms. Sir Leonard Wallace and Captain Hugh Shannon quietly left the room.

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THE MYSTERY OF TUNNEL 51

THE DEVIL’S COCKTAIL

WALLACE OF THE SECRET SERVICE

A
LEXANDER
W
ILSON
was a writer, spy and secret service officer. He served in the First World War before moving to India to teach as a Professor of English Literature and eventually became Principal of Islamia College at the University of Punjab in Lahore. He began writing spy novels whilst in India and he enjoyed great success in the 1930s with reviews in the
Telegraph, Observer
and the
Times Literary Supplement
amongst others. Wilson also worked as an intelligence agent and his characters are based on his own fascinating and largely unknown career in the Secret Intelligence Service. He passed away in 1963.

The Mystery of Tunnel 51

The Devil’s Cocktail

Wallace of the Secret Service

Get Wallace!

His Excellency, Governor Wallace

Microbes of Power

Wallace at Bay

Wallace Intervenes

Chronicles of the Secret Service